Sunday 13 March 2016

Smear Campaigns: My thoughts on them

A smear campaign is the following:
"a ​planned attempt to ​harm the ​reputation of a ​person or ​company by telling lies about them:"
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/smear-campaign

It is no doubt a tactic that is employed by individuals to sway others to their course. What bothers me about these is when apologists engage in this kind of tactic to attack their opponents. Let me tell what these campaigns are not:

They are not the following:

  • Not knowing the full facts and making a rash accusation and repenting of such when clarification is made.
  • Exposing a false teacher with biblical scripture and truth
  • Demonstrating a person has been involved in a scandal
And there are probably other points that could be given.

What angers me is when a person, either using a recording that has been edited to make someone say the opposite of what they meant, misrepresent what they say, make up lies about them to make them look like a joke and just being plain nasty. I hate smear campaigns and I hate it when people who claim to be Christians engage in this behavior.

It angers me when someone has been maliciously spoken of with zero evidence. It disgusts me tremendously when a Christian is so biased and so unfair that they will grab hold of anything to justify their venom towards a particular person, including aiding another liar in "exposing" the person.

I have witnessed Sam Shamoun, James White, Paul Washer, John MacArthur and others being slandered and maligned by some individuals, Shamoun especially has been misrepresented by some in the Muslim camps, * I myself have been on the receiving end and am a victim of virtiol and lies and others who have been in this position of having vicious rumours spread about them also may share my anger and frustration.

It is one thing for unbelievers to engage in this kind of wicked tactic, It's quite another thing for someone who calls themselves a Christian to do it. Christians should not be engaging in slander or libel at all.

It is one thing to make a mistake in a charge and realize you are wrong (I have made rash conclusions and I have corrected myself), it's another to make a charge and run with it, even when the charge is demonstrably untrue. I question the integrity of any man or woman who is willing to stoop to this evil.

See my article on false witnessing for more information:
http://answering-judaism.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/false-witnessing-what-is-it.html

What is the best thing that can be done about those who build smear campaigns? Pray for their repentance or pray that God will bring his judgement upon them, either one of those two will be fine.

Pray that God will expose your enemies lies and deception so that they may have a broken heart and beg God for mercy and correct the damage they have done. That's really what can be done. Ask someone to pray for you as well as pray with someone. Bottom line, A smear campaign should be anathema to a Christian, for Revelation says the following in chapter 21:

"6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”"

Answering Judaism.

*16th of March 2016, I had to add a little extra to the sentence just to clarify what I was saying.

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